


Trust and Traps

by completelyhopeless



Series: Queen and Hawkheart [23]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Gen, Implied/Referenced Torture, hints of Tony/Pepper, references to slavery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-29
Updated: 2015-01-29
Packaged: 2018-03-09 15:19:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3254591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/completelyhopeless/pseuds/completelyhopeless
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Virginia confides some of her concerns about Stark to the queen, but a delegation interrupts and the queen finds someone else who might be a kindred spirit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trust and Traps

**Author's Note:**

> This was one of the last things I wanted to before returning to the where the first piece starts off, add in one more character. I had a different idea of how this would happen, and it is probably just as far-fetched as this one, but the time period complicated things for me, and this was what I ended up with.
> 
> Also, I cheated and just used italics for when they're using another language. 
> 
> I almost made it a second fill for the prompt "trust but verify."

* * *

“I admit, I do not know how to help him,” Virginia said, adjusting her skirt as she spoke. She was always doing more than one thing at the same time. “What has happened to him has... changed him. He puts on a pretense for others, but when he is alone with me, I see it.”

Natalia nodded, though she knew of no comfort to offer her lady-in-waiting, knew of nothing to aid her friend, either. She had heard some of what had passed while he was a captive, and though he had been a member of the army before his abduction, what he had done to escape his tormenters was different from any war. So was the torture. Stark was not the same, would not be the same.

“He is home,” Natalia reminded her. “That is some small mercy, one most do not have, and whatever else follows, at least he has you.”

Virginia sighed. “Is that enough?”

Natalia could not answer that. She did not know. “If he needs more, he can find it on his own.” 

“I do not know that he would,” Virginia whispered, her voice full of worry. “I do not think he trusts himself anymore. He does not show his true self to the others, and when I am with him, he always wants to leave the door open, as though he is scared of what he might do to me if we are alone.”

Natalia frowned. That she did not care for at all. She would have to ask Hawkeye if he believed that Stark could be a danger to Virginia and take measures to ensure that he was not. She looked up as the doors opened and a procession entered, made up of several rough looking men, weathered by the storms of the sea. She did not think they were naval officers. They lacked order, though they did separate one as a leader, and he came forward.

“I am told I need your permission to pass through this land,” the man said. “I am Ulric. These are my men. We served aboard a ship until this... woman killed half of us and sank it.”

The others pushed forward a woman of far eastern origin. Her dark hair fell in her face as she struggled in their hold, and the rags she wore covered little of her body. Natalia heard movement behind her, and she thought Lord Hawkeye's inclinations were similar to her own—making these men pay for the harm they had done to her.

“We are bound for our home, but if you could spare us a cell and a night's respite, we would be grateful,” Ulric went on. “She may not look like much, but she is more dangerous than she seems.”

Natalia held in a snort. She was more dangerous than she seemed, but that was not true of all. Some were truly gentle. Virginia was that way—though if provoked, Natalia believed that she would fight. She turned her attention to the prisoner, wondering when she had become capable of pity, if she had fallen so far, but then perhaps it was not pity and instead anger that stirred her now. She remembered being in similar positions herself. She might have been guilty, but even with the blood on her hands, she had received better treatment than this woman had. 

She did not like having only Ulric's words to go by, either. She turned to the woman, waiting until their eyes met. She saw danger in her, but she did not see madness, and while the line was not always clear, Natalia knew how to walk it. “Is this true?”

“She does not speak any language except her own,” Ulric said, not giving the woman a chance to answer. “All we know is that she is crazy. She attacked the crew, killed half of them in some strange rage, and she has been almost impossible to contain since. We just need a cell for the night and then we will move on. She must answer for what she has done.”

Glaring at the men, the woman spoke, but instead of some ancient curse or incoherent madness, her words held a righteous anger regardless of their tongue. _“You killed them. You killed_ all _of them. You let them starve, left them in the dark, cramped with no food or water. You killed them. You and your crew.”_

Natalia's hands gripped her chair, and she swallowed before addressing the woman in the same language she had spoken. _“They were slavers?”_

The woman's eyes found Natalia, surprise on everyone's faces except the mask that Lord Hawkeye wore. They had not known that she knew this tongue, and they would regret assuming that she did not. _“Yes. Most of us were dead before the trip was half over. I tried... I could not save them.”_

“Release her,” Natalia ordered. “Slavery is illegal in this land, and you will not profit from it. I do not even know that I should give you the mercy of your lives.”

“That little whore is lying. She stowed away and went mad on the voyage. We are not slavers. She lies. You do not even know what she is saying—”

“I do,” Natalia said coldly. “Arrest them. Let them languish in the cold and dark without food and water as they did those they trapped on their ship.”

The guards started to move in, and Natalia glanced toward Hawkeye. His bow was in his hand, and he gripped it hard enough to want to break it. Natalia almost smiled. She was tempted to kill all of them with her own hands. That was not the action of a queen, though, and she would rather they knew the kind of torment they had inflicted on others before they died.

She turned to her friend. “Virginia, take her where her wounds can be treated and find her something clean to wear.”

Virginia nodded, going to the woman's side. Natalia saw Stark tense. This was a risk, but not much of one—Hawkeye would act before any harm came to her. This way they would know if the woman's tale was true. If she was only a crazed killer, she would seize the opportunity to escape afforded her by a seemingly weak target like Virginia. 

That was the exact trap Ulric fell into. He threw off his guard and grabbed hold of her, putting a blade to her throat and kicking his former prisoner out of the way. She fell, cursing him in her native language as she tried to pick herself up.

“Pepper!” Stark cried, rushing in to help her. The slavers drew their weapons, trying to force him back, but he was not in any reasonable sort of mind.

“Let us go,” Ulric said. He tried to kick his prisoner again, but she rolled out of his way. “You can keep that woman if you think so much of her. She is useless to us.”

“You are a fool,” Natalia said. “Do you think you will walk out of this room alive? That you can leave this castle still breathing? That you would not be hunted down and slaughtered even if you did accomplish either of those things? You were being spared, and that is more than you deserved for what you have done.”

“I will kill her,” the leader insisted as his men pushed Stark back. He fought wildly, too desperate to get to Virginia to have any kind of strategy. “She will be dead before anyone else gets close to us. Let us go or she dies.”

“No one has to get close to you,” she said, and before she had finished speaking, one arrow hit its mark, center in the slaver's head. His sword clattered to the ground before he hit, and Virginia stumbled away, her voice robbed of speech by what had just happened. Two more arrows took out the men holding Stark back, and he reached Virginia's side.

“Any more of you want to join them?” Hawkeye asked, bow pointed at the remaining slavers. “Frankly, I did not expect you to get any mercy from the queen, and I do not think I have any in me.”

“Kill them,” Stark said darkly, putting his hands on Virginia's shoulders. Phillip moved close and offered his cloak to the former prisoner, who stared at him, unwilling to accept his kindness.

_“Phillip will not harm you. He is a good man,”_ Natalia told her. _“What is your name?”_

“May.” She took the cloak from Phillip and wrapped it around herself. “Why... trust... me?”

Natalia smiled. “I never said I trusted you. I just did not trust them.”

May smiled in return.


End file.
